Carding screens



Jan. 9, 1968 v KULPA CARDING SCREENS Filed March 29, 1966 INVENTOR.

United States Patent Ofiice 3,362,047 Patented Jan. 9, 1968 3,362,047 CARDING SCREENS Vincent Kulpa, 21 Coral St., Fall River, Mass. 02721 Filed Mar. 29, 1966, Ser. No. 538,371 2 Claims. (Cl. 19-95) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The within invention is concerned with carding screens and particularly the screen that is beneath the carding cylinder. The corners of the screens are cut oif at angles of between 40 and 60 degrees. With the proper adjustment of the carding screen to the surface of the cylinder, snowballing is almost completely eliminated.

This invention is concerned with an improvement in a screen for carding machines of the type that are placed beneath a rotating cylinder.

Carding machines of the type used to obtain cotton for finish work are for the purpose of removing the impurities from the raw cotton and transforming same into a yarn material. The bales of cotton are broken up into a 60 pound lap of 40 inch width. The cotton is then fed into the machine. While in the machine of the conventional type, and while passing between a screen and cylinder, ragged salvage or snowballs are formed at the furthest end of the screen. The snowballing has the effect of disorienting the cotton lap and reducing the strength and distorting the uniformity of the cotton fibers.

It is a principal object of the within invention to eliminate snowballing of the cotton Web in a carding machine as it passes beneath the cylinder above the screen.

It is an additional object of the invention to provide an improvement in the quality of the web or lap.

It is yet a further object of this invention to minimize the loss of spinnable fiber.

It is still another object of the invention to increase the efiiciency and quality of production.

The invention may be described as the forming of a bevel in the screen at the ends proximate to the location where the web passes beneath the cylinder and the screen. The conventional carding screen has 90 angles or square corners at this junction. The bevel is at approximately 45 from the edges, reducing the far end of the screen from 40 inches to 37 /2 inches in the preferred embodiment.

For a more detailed description of the invention, refence is made to the following specification and to the drawing in which:

FIGURE 1 is a side elevational diagrammatic view illustrating the cylinder and screen with respect to their relationship each to the other.

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the carding machine including the elements shown in FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a perspective view of the improved carding screen.

The carding screen 4 is mounted on a frame 1 by the lugs in the slots 11. The main carding cylinder 2 is mounted above the screen 4 and is adapted to rotate counter-clockwise, as shown by the arrows in the view of FIGURE 1. The cooperating carding elements 3 are at about 10 oclock in the view of FIGURE 1, adapted to rotate clockwise. t

On the surface of the screen 4 are the corrugations 5 which are in the nature of surface ripples. The removed corners 7 are shown in FIGURE 3 and leave the beveled corners 8 on the screen 4. The carding screen 4 has continuous straight sides and ends. The corners 7 which have been removed and beveled form interior angles with the straight sides and ends of the screen 4 of approximately The view of FIGURE 2 shows more of the conventional carding machine. The container 12 is to the side of the concave grooved feeding roll 16.

The sliver 13 is located within the feed roll 16 and moves in the direction of the arrow past the guide eye 14 from the condensing roll 15.

Part of the transmission system of the carding machine is shown in FIGURE 2. The drive shaft 19 is connected to the pulley 20. A belt 17 connects pulley 20 with pulley 18.

The normal operation of a card (see FIGURE 1 of the drawing) is for the cotton to enter the carding system at the right side of the machine at 6, and be carried by the main cylinder in a counter-clockwise direction where the lap of the cotton is worked by the worker rollers 3. The major portion of the cotton lap is then usually removed from the main cylinder 2 at the left side of the machine at 9 after passing beneath the Worker rollers 3. Although the main portion of the lap is re moved, some fibers remain on the main cylinder 2 as it passes downwardly such that the fibers on the cylinder pass over the corrugations 5 of the carding screen 4. As these fibers on the main cylinder 2 pass over the screen 4, above the corrugations 5, the normal tendency is for some of them to snag on the corners of the screen 4 at 9 and thus form a ball of fiber in that area; this results in an effect often called snowballing. This snowballing has the detrimental efliect of causing a non-uniform layer of fibers across the main cylinder 2 such that the layer of fibers entering the system at the right, at the area designated by the number 6, are placed on a nonuniform base of fibers that have passed above the screen. This effect compounds itself during the continuous operation of the machine with the result that the fibers being worked by the Worker rollers 3 are subjected to a different working force depending on their position on the main cylinder 2.

The present invention eliminates this non-uniform working force by beveling at 8 the corners 7 of the screen 4 so that the fibers remaining on the main cylinder 2 as it moves downwardly and over the screen 4 do not encounter sharp corners 7 upon which the filters would tend to snag. By eliminating the snagging or snowballing, the lap of cotton entering the machine is placed on a uniform layer of fibers and results in a uniform layer of fibers being subjected to the force and action of the worker rollers 3.

There is a great inefficiency resulting from the ragged edges or snowballs with a waste of much cotton. By eliminating the snowballing, the quality of the cotton web that is formed by the carding machine is considerably improved.

The snowballing also slows down the speed of production. By beveling the corners of the screen, friction is eliminated; the pulling of the fibers is overcome, so

3 that the web feeds between the screen and the carding cylinder at a greater velocity, bringing about greater productivity.

Since there is a very minimum of pulling, the fibers of cotton in the web are longer, giving more strength to the web.

By beveling the corner of the screen as shown, air currents are eliminated to a great extent. This, of course, removes the draft at the back above the carding machine, thus more efliciently controlling the operation of the cotton.

I claim:

1. In a carding machine, a main carding cylinder, a carding screen beneath the cylinder, said screen having continuous straight sides and ends, and beveled edges connecting said sides and ends forming diagonal corners of the screen at positions proximate to where the cylinder rotates downwardly into the screen for eliminating ragged salvage between said cylinder and said screen.

2. In a carding machine as described in claim 1, wherein said diagonal corners form interior angles with said sides and ends of said screen of approximately 135 degrees.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,302,248 2/1967 Johnson 1995 656,871 8/1900 White 1995 1,917,896 7/1933 Mitchell 19-95 OTHER REFERENCES Willis, H. H. and Moore, V. B., Cotton Carding, The Textile Foundation, 1936.

ROBERT R. MACKEY, Primary Examiner.

MERVIN STEIN, Examiner.

IRA C. WADDEY, JR., Assistant Examiner. 

